Animal Man #7Review

Share.

Buddy and Cliff share some father-son time.

By Erik Norris

I'm a little torn on Animal Man #7. The fan in me wants to love this issue unconditionally for its fantastic character moments, but the critic in me can't look past the book's inconsistent and oftentimes contradictory artwork. In a nutshell, Animal Man #7 is a great chapter to this saga from a story perspective, but the artwork, which is split between Travel Foreman and Steve Pugh, leaves something to be desired.

So I guess Animal Man #7's artwork warrants the largest focus of this review. Regular artist Travel Foreman pencils only five pages of this comic, leaving the rest of the issue in Steve Pugh's hands. Pugh will soon be taking over full-time art duties on Animal Man, and he makes a solid case for his craft when stepping in to replace Foreman's unmistakable line work. However, Foreman and Pugh don't mesh like peanut butter and jelly. Their styles are vastly different and the multiple transitions between artists is very jarring. Additionally, there are moments where character designs for certain scenes clearly weren't coordinated, further pulling the reader out of the immersive story of the book. The biggest offender here is in the opening pages where Ellen goes from not wearing glasses and a headband to wearing them in the very next panel.

But if you can look past the artistic hiccups of Animal Man #7, the book should still entertain. There's some great character stuff happening here, especially with Buddy's son, Cliff. The scene featuring the mullet maniac trying to tell a cute girl his father is Animal Man is priceless. Socks the cat also has a few standout scenes. Overall, Animal Man #7 delivers from a narrative point of view, but the art needs to be hammered down in order to stand toe to toe with Lemire's fantastic story.